1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a telephone communication system and, more particularly, to providing caller identification information at a station set.
2. Description of Related Art
Presently existing telephone communication systems may include a plurality of station sets, such as an attendant station set and a plurality of adjunct station sets associated therewith. In these communication systems, an incoming call may be answered at the attendant station set for subsequent forwarding to one of the adjunct station sets. Since caller ID information is sent from the central switching office to the called telephone at a point in time no earlier than the ring interval between the first and second ring signals, this caller ID information is lost if the attendant station set answers an incoming call too soon.
Loss of caller ID information is an undesired consequence of currently existing communication system topologies. However, there is an increasing demand for telephone users to better serve their clients by using called party information. If possible, telephone users would like to screen calls prior to answering the phone. Furthermore, calling party information could be used in conjunction with various applications to provide specialized services to specific calling parties. What is needed is a communications topology which preserves caller ID information until the call is answered by the called party at an adjunct station set.